TV station puts up new tower

Secured by a safety harness, a worker is hoisted to the top of KCDO s new television tower south of Fort Morgan. (John La Porte/Fort Morgan Times)

KCDO television has built a new antenna tower near Fort Morgan for a full-power digital facility.

The station received FCC permission to build and relocate to a tall tower approximately 16 miles south and a little west of Fort Morgan, where a digital facility has been built.

The tower and antenna total 1,198 feet, and Morgan County will be blanketed, said Greg Armstrong, general manager.

Viewers with digital TVs or digital converters (used to make analog sets receive digital signals) will be able to get the station after they re-scan their respective units, and KCDO-TV will be channel 3. Some form of indoor or outdoor antenna is usually necessary for digital reception.

KCDO-TV general manager Greg Armstrong makes a cell phone call from a small rise next to his station s tower and equipment building. The site has one drawback it is in a bowl that makes cell phone reception difficult. (John La Porte/Fort Morgan Times)

KCDO-TV is currently available to residents of Morgan County who have Dish Network or DirecTV service.

“Once the new tower is operational then I will request carriage from Bresnan and other cable systems in the area so eventually we'll be carried there also,” Armstrong said. “At that point K3 will be over the air free and on cable and satellite.”

K3 programs “Retro TV,” including some shows from the 1960s to ‘80s (”Magnum PI,” “The Rockford Files” and “The A-Team,” for example), Northern Colorado News 5 at 10 p.m. (the only local newscast targeted to Northern Colorado, Armstrong said, produced by KGWN in Cheyenne, Wyo.

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), AgDay morning news at 5:30 and 8 a.m., other local programs and infomercials.

The station carried the 2008 debates between incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and Democrat Betsy Markey, who unseated Musgrave in the 2008 election.

“Since we are new the lineup will evolve, but I am trying to find niches not served by other TV stations in the region,” Armstrong said.

The new full-power facility will be turned on for testing soon, possibly today.

Shortly thereafter K3 will be in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The station is licensed to Sterling and has been on the air there since 1964.

It was part of a three-station setup, with other stations in Cheyenne and in Scottsbluff, Neb.

The over-the-air area covers about a 60-mile radius, but the satellite affiliations give the station about 35 percent of the Denver television market — 48 counties in Colorado, seven in Wyoming and 13 in Nebraska.

“We geographically cover a large area,” said Armstrong.

The tower looms above and off to the side of a metal building put up by area business Morton Buildings. Numerous local contractors were used in the construction project, the general manager noted.

Also, the station had Morgan County Rural Electric Association install six miles of three-phase line; the existing service was one-phase, and more power was needed.

Wiggins Telephone supplied fiber optic cable. Project manager Dirk Freeman said he was impressed with how technologically up to date Wiggins Telephone is.

The building next to the tower contains digital equipment. A generator on the side of the building opposite the tower is set to come on automatically in case of a power failure.

The tower and its equipment can support up to five stations.— Contact John La Porte at news@fmtimes.com.

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